What to know
- Sabrina Apitz-Grossman was denied Ontario government funding for a T-cell therapy, Telcera, a treatment not yet available in Canada for her cancer subtype.
- Without provincial support, Sabrina and her husband launched a GoFundMe to cover the $785,000 treatment cost.
- Advocates say her case highlights gaps in Canada’s drug approval and funding system for rare or emerging therapies.
- Sabrina’s story has sparked a broader conversation about access, equity, and the emotional toll on patients left to crowdfund their medical care.
After being denied potentially life-saving funding by the Ontario government for a rare cancer treatment unavailable in Canada, Toronto resident Sabrina Apitz-Grossman is turning to the public for help.
Apitz-Grossman was diagnosed with synovial sarcoma, a rare and aggressive soft-tissue cancer, at the age of 28.
“I had graduated from law school, and I was doing an internship. The diagnosis threw that off completely… It’s been on pause now for years, and I moved home. It’s not quite what I imagined for my early 30s,” Apitz-Grossman told Now Toronto.
Despite a life-altering condition, Apitz-Grossman tries to stay positive thanks to her “helpers,” which include her supportive network of parents, siblings, cousin, husband, and more. However, she says the Ontario government hasn’t been the most helpful.
Fourteen months ago, oncologists suggested Apitz-Grossman see if she’s eligible for a specialized immunotherapy available in the U.S., called Telcera.
After numerous tests, she felt relieved to learn her HLA type (a set of immune-system markers) and tumour antigen expression made her eligible for the treatment.
“I remember turning to my husband and saying that it was the first time in years that I felt like I was going to live, and I remember crying just out of joy, like being really happy,” she told Now Toronto.
But that happiness soon faded after finding out the government would not cover the hefty $785,000 CAD price tag that came with the treatment.
Apitz-Grossman says she exhausted both avenues for accessing the treatment: Ontario’s out-of-country program, which can fund medically necessary treatments unavailable in the province, and its case-by-case review program, which covers certain unfunded cancer drugs when no funded alternatives exist. The latter also requires federal permission to import the medication and a hospital willing to administer it.
Despite allegedly receiving a one-time permission to import the medication and securing Princess Margaret Hospital’s agreement to administer the treatment, Apitz-Grossman says the Ontario government refused to fund it through either program.
Ontario cites future funding review as reason for denial
Apitz-Grossman says the province rejected her application because it planned to review funding for the drug at a later date,, leaving her without coverage in the meantime. However, she says the manufacturer allegedly told her it had no plans to bring the drug to Canada, citing regulation hurdles and a small market for such a rare cancer.
She says this isn’t an isolated issue. Apitz-Grossman named several other cancer patients with rare types of conditions who have fought the Divisional Court, Appeal Board and Ministry on decisions regarding out-of-country treatment without much change.
As Apitz-Grossman continues a longstanding fight against the Canadian healthcare system, her window of time keeps shrinking.
More than a year later, her cancer has since spread to both her lungs and progressed to Stage IV.
“They tell you that you have about 12 to 18 months. And that, for me, was last September, so this is sort of month 14. I feel well. I feel like I have a lot of life left to live,” she teared up.
As she’s continuing her fight to live, her friend, Sam Murray, organized a GoFundMe to raise the funds for treatment.
At the time of publication, the GoFundMe raised $165,145 of the $785,000 goal.
Once she receives the funding, she has to confirm the government still approves her one-time importation permission and that Princess Margaret Hospital will still administer the treatment before she can access this help.
Then, there’s a two-month lead time to genetically engineer the T-cells before she can actually access treatment.
“I think this issue is a lot bigger than me… people who are diagnosed with rare cancers who find out that there are treatments that could save them, but that they can’t get their hands on for whatever reason. And I think, as a society, we need to have an open and loud conversation about what we want to do in those kinds of situations,” Apitz-Grossman told Now Toronto.
“I have a duty to talk about it because a lot of people haven’t had a chance, and they’ve died,” she added.
